Inventor of the Lost
by The Canadian HoneyBadger
Summary: A broken Jinchuuriki, a sunny day, and two rivals are all it takes to bend the laws of the universe. A lost inventor exiled from his home, and a government agent sent to kill them both meet at the same time.This is not a primarily romance story but there may be a little here and there. Not Yaoi of course but fangirls can still giggle and pretend I guess.
1. A Broken Jinchuuriki

"_Your friends, they, __**we**__ risked our lives to bring you back!"_

"_Good for them then, I never asked them to!"_

Naruto groaned and leaned back into his pillow, looking out the window in his hospital room. For the first time in years he felt like giving up, like throwing everything away.

Nothing he had done as a genin had mattered; the village still hated him, his best friend had abandoned him after they nearly killed each other… and Sakura…

He twisted the bed sheets and grit his teeth just thinking about it. The worst part was that even with the Kyuubi sealed in him the wounds he received would take some time to heal, so he was left in the hospital with nothing to do but brood and think about how he had failed **everyone**.

"_There is one man I want to kill"_

Was killing Itachi so important that Sasuke had to throw his life away? That he had to throw away his friends, his clan, and everything else in life?

Naruto looked outside the window again and stared at the hokage monument, the hokages faces looming over the village. Naruto groaned again and twisted and turned in the bed trying to get the depressing thoughts out of his head.

"_You couldn't even do this__** one**__ thing right!? You couldn't even bring back your friend?!"_

That was it. Naruto shot up and briskly got out of bed opening the window and heading to his apartment across the rooftops making sure nobody saw him.

He clenched his fists as he heard the villagers below talk the latest gossip, it was of course that the demon child had driven away the Uchiha, some disagreed saying the Uchiha were always power hungry but others always brought up the same damn thing.

He was on the same team as the demon; obviously something like this was waiting to happen.

Sliding open the dilapidated window into his apartment Naruto looked around. As always his apartment was a mess; ramen cups were strewn across the dining room/kitchen, his sink was filled to the brim with dishes, and laundry was lying around the room haphazardly.

Naruto went to his bedroom which was in a similar state, heading to his closet he opened it up to grab something to wear.

Once the 3 orange outfits in his closet would have excited him, would have made him smile slightly at the bright and obnoxiously cheerful color. Now it only served as fuel for his anger, at Sasuke, at Kakashi, but most of all at himself for never working hard enough.

He never trained the same amounts Sasuke did and it showed. The closest thing to the Uchiha's never ending training was his month with Jiraiya, and he still complained about it. Naruto clenched his fist, the only reason why he ever won a fight nowadays was because of the Kyuubi, at least Sasuke managed to win a fight without using his Sharingan occasionally

"_Naruto! Let's end this in one last move! You against me!"_

_A flash of light and then blistering pain._

Naruto screamed and drew a kunai and slashed at the jumpsuits tearing them to pieces and tearing at the fabric, once worth twice their weight in gold to him, now they were only causing him pain.

Naruto caught a hold of himself just as he was about to plunge the kunai into the wall. He stopped and just knelt there, breathing heavily and his mind racing.

The other clothes he had was a semi-transparent, Konoha chainmesh shirt; a gift from Iruka. A pair of torn grey sweat pants; Naruto didn't even know where he got those, and some black t-shirts he wore under the suits. He'd have to get a better wardrobe at some point, for now however this would do.

He tore off the hospital gown he was in and slipped on the pants, before putting on the chainmesh and then the black t-shirt. Naruto cursed when he realized chainmesh shirt was a long sleeve and the chain poked out longer than the black shirt but he sighed and left the closet.

He then turned to the window he'd entered by and locked it before leaving out the front door, he'd return to the rooftops once he was outside his building.

Naruto thought about what he was doing, he shouldn't leave Konoha with the akatsuki out and about, and he wouldn't get any training outside of his home ninja village.

But at the same time he couldn't stay either, he felt like the village walls were becoming more and more oppressive, the memories that once brought a smile to his face now only made him feel worse, and at this point only a handful of people actually cared about his well-being rather than the Kyuubi.

Getting out of the village would be easy but staying out would be difficult, but at this point had almost nothing left to lose, he turned at looked at the dilapidated building that used to be his home.

"Goodbye everyone..."


	2. A Sunny Day

It was a sunny cheerful day the day Naruto's heart broke. He had failed to bring back Sasuke and Kakashi was too late to save him. Instead all the one-eye jounin found was rubble, a scratched headband and a broken jinchurikii.

It was a sunny day indeed.

Naruto woke up half-way on the way back to Konoha, Kakashi was silent the entire way and Naruto took this for hostility and remained silent as well. He should've known he couldn't count on those who knew his secret. Still Sakura and the others would understand right?

They didn't.

When Naruto arrived he got out of Kakashi, and limped to the gates, preparing himself mentally for what was about to happen next.

But Sakura wouldn't hate him for failing right?

"Sakura, he… Didn't want to come back…I tried to make him but, he beat me an I-"

The sting on his cheek confirmed to Naruto what had just happened, what Sakura just done. But she wasn't finished.

"Naruto you…you, you…" Sakura turned around to try and hide the tears filling her eyes.

"I knew it, I couldn't trust **you**, not the dead last. Now I know for sure and Sasuke-kun is gone now he might not even come back." A sob wrenched through her.

"Sakura I-"

"SHUTUP!" She turned to him furiously and was going to hit him when the anger in her eyes turned to sadness and her raised fist was lowered.

"Just go Naruto, just go and never come back…

Maybe Sasuke might come back then, maybe then we can get some peace, without ** you**" Sakura almost spat out the last word

Naruto took one last look at Sakura feeling worse and worse with every passing second.

"Fine then, I'll go." Sakura bit her lip as she realized what she had just said, she turned to Naruto but his eyes were fluttering lightly, Kakashi caught him just in time to prevent Naruto's wounds from getting worse.

Sakura looked to her sensei for help but there was naught but cold fury and shame. She felt tears well up in her eyes again as she realized she had just hurt Naruto really badly; and looking at the wounds on his body Sasuke had too.

She widened her eyes at the sight of the hole going through his chest but just as she was going to take a step towards him Kakashi spoke.

"Sakura, just go; take the day off." There was a certain razor edge in his tone that told her that by no means necessary was she to talk to Naruto for the next few days. Kakashi exploded in a cloud of smoke and Sakura clenched her fists.

Sakura never felt more helpless, having lost one of her teammates, and now had gone into new depths of hurting the other. She looked up at the clouds and vowed she wouldn't let anything hurt Naruto, or Sasuke. She had to get stronger both physically and mentally; especially mentally; another thing like this could never happen again.

She turned and remembered someone who had been stuck in an eerily similar position last generation.

Maybe she could get help with that, or at the very least some advice on what to do next.

It was a sunny day indeed.


	3. A Hidden Tanto

_(Unknown location two days prior to Naruto's departure)_

A man sat in a Traditional Japanese the simple one room hut placed at the very back of a small walled off section of the mountain he resided on. The compound had a large Sakura tree in the middle of it, a small chicken coop also resided to the left of the compound opposite a small fountain which gave off the sound of water moving.

Aside the man was woman who was playing a Shamisen completing the almost stereotypically Japanese feel to the compound. All in the entire place was at peace as the man meditated and the woman played slowly.

The peace was broken however when a man dressed in simple black robes burst through the gates running straight towards the man, once he got with a meter he stopped and bowed to the man.

"Lord Shogawaki I came as soon as I read your message!" the man's face was clean cut and he had a small pair of glasses balanced on his nose, his black hair was done up in a traditional samurai knot even though it was clear he was a ninja rather than a warrior.

"Ah agent Tanto, I was wondering when you'd get here, Do not worry about protocol for now come sit beside me we have much to discuss." Tanto appeared uncertain as to whether or not he should do that but gave in to the stare Shogawaki was giving him, he sat down and Shogawaki sighed.

"It seems that I have a new mission for you;" Shogawaki stared at the Sakura tree watching as a few pink leaves rolled in the breeze.

"Do you know how difficult it was to grow this tree here? In the mountains of Iwa?" Shogawaki smiled at Tanto motioning towards the tree.

"No, my lord;" Though the agent was impatient to find out who his next target was he knew that being impatient would only delay the answer.

"Very difficult, it reminds me of you; a true shinobi, a stealthy assassin, rather than those loud blundering fools in the villages." He stared at the tree deep in thought. He clenched his fists though and turned to his agent.

"There are those who would destroy this tree, who would gladly kill you and me, simply because we do not follow their way, Konoha is one of these places." A certain edge entered his tone when he said the village's name, "And we have now just found out from one of my sleeper agents in Waves that Konoha has a jinchuuriki, we long suspected that there was one in Konoha after the Kyuubi attack but we never were certain as to his identity. Now we know however, the targets name is Uzumaki Naruto," at this the man drew out a photo taken by the spy. "You are to eliminate him as soon and stealthily as possible. Do not get involved in a direct confrontation with him, simply ambush him and cut off his head so as to prevent regeneration."

Tanto rather than looking scared as most men would be at the thought of fighting jinchuuriki, looked determined and a hard light entered his eyes.

"Very well my lord, shall I leave now," Tanto began to stand up,

"Yes," Lord Shogawaki tone was bored all of a sudden as if after making sure Tanto needed no more information than the agent was suddenly useless.

As the agent jogged out of the compound Shogawaki smiled, a cruel edge to his expression, and killed the shamisan player who had stopped playing.

Useless things these foreigners were couldn't even learn a three stringed simplicity.


	4. An Idiot's Dango

If there was one thing Yang hated it was violent drinkers, and it seemed the road had been full of them today as a pack of five thugs, probably bandits of some sort, took up the best spot in the house, groping any female unfortunate to have to walk in range of them.

They spilt Sake, drunk what wasn't spilt, and worst of all, they drove away customers. So he had mixed feelings when a man, barely out of his teens walked into the tavern.

He wore a fairly long coat which ended at his knees a book bag hung over his shoulder and a pair of goggles lay over his eyes, his brown hair swept up into spikes, aa ring of multicoloured pouches hung off his belt, and he wore a fancy red shirt under the jacket.

He turned and sat on the counter and ordered a small dish of dango, one of the few things Yang could actually make. He waited there patiently ignoring the shouts behind him. Yang scowled again when he heard them but continued to make the sweets, after a few minutes they were done and he placed the dish in front of the goggled youth.

He nodded and paid quietly about to enjoy one of the few none ration meals he had in months when a large dirty hand knocked away the stick he was holding and flipped the platter over send the sticky dumplings all over the boy's jacket.

Most people would either react with indignation; some would be badass and do some intricate ironic move that involved making the thug hit himself.

The boy did neither, or perhaps both.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" the youth slammed his hand on the bar and grabbed the thug by the collar and slapped him.

At this point the thug's companions realized something was up with their friend and turned to see the fight brewing up, Yang swore and hoped they wouldn't use anything too damaging.

A boy in the corner with stunning blonde hair shouted in excitement as the goggled man slapped the thug again.

"I hope you plan on buying another plate for me you little bitch, because that was the first real edible food I was going to have in months." The thug was furious and spat in goggle's face enraging him further, "I was gonna let you keep your nose straight but you know what!?"

The sound of something cracking was heard and the thug howled as the man dropped him flat on his ass, the man's hands immediately flew to his face and the thug held his nose tightly.

"You bastard! Yorijis with us! And we're not gonna let you do that to him and get away with it!" The leader of the group presumably so because he was the biggest and most scarred of the sorry lot, thumbed at himself, a vicious grin stretching across his face.

"Ah good I needed some action tonight." The goggled man smiled and barked out "Innkeep make me anther plate, I'll pay for the damages done to your establishment and kick these guys asses for you!"

Yang only hesitated for a seconded before shrugging and making more dumplings.

The goggled youth smiled again and stretched his hand out to the gang, the goggles on his face lit up a bright blue, he cracked his knuckles.

"Do you know who you guys are messing with?" He said slowly and even the thug with the broken nose started to listen the youth.

"You're fucking with the scientist of death! The magician of fear! The Inventor of the lost! You have no idea who's wrath you've just incurred! You've pissed off the one and only, Drake Muren!"

With a flourish he reached into his pouch

"BEHOLD the instrument of your doom!"

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It was a banana.

At first Naruto and the other occupants of the tavern thought it was a joke, a weird one even by his standards but the goggle guy didn't even crack a smile as he winked at a barmaid.

"Ah I know what you're thinking! What strange pistol is that? It's the one and only repeater prototype and I'll give you guys the demonstration personally."

Naruto face-palmed as he realized in an effort to be cool the goggled guy had covered his eyes and didn't realize the error he'd made.

When Drake squeezed the trigger however Naruto realized how old and disgusting that banana was as it had to of been at least two months old at least for the banana to go flying out the way it did.

The disgusting old mushy thing flew through the air straight into the leader's face, suddenly the entire room stunk horrible and Tan finally realized his 'pistol' wasn't as deadly as it was supposed to be.

But really it was quiet funny and Naruto wasn't afraid of laughing, the leader bristled full of rage and screamed out to the five thugs behind him.

"KILL THAT GOGGLE WEARING MORON! AND THE BLONDE CLOWN TOO!"

Well shit, and here he was trying to be quiet for once.


	5. A rather mediocre fight

Note the first: listen to Yoshida brothers- Ibuki whilst reading this, really makes the scene come alive for me.

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Naruto twisted under a punch and stamped on the attackers foot before hitting the thug in the face. He straightened up and kicked the bandit in the chest before forming a tiger seal and summoning three clones to help him.

Meanwhile Drake had pulled out various things from his pouches, his narration echoing throughout the tavern as Naruto fought off two guys and two others struggled to dodge the paraphernalia thrown at them.

"Rubber duck? No. Drinking glass? No." Drake kept tossing the items at the thugs who were cursing the inventor as they hid behind cover.

"Pliers? No. Metal cabling? No. Where did I put my fighting equipment!? Oh right red pouch not the blue one. He brought out a massive two handed war hammer, exquisitely crafted and the head formed into a snarling tiger.  
"AHHH this will do!?" Just as Drake grinned and began to swingthe head of the hammer fell off and smashed through the planks beneath it leaving Drake with a large fancy stick.

"MY TAVERN" the bartender wailed ignoring the fight completely,

"God-damnit!" Drake swore as the thugs kicked the table they had hidden behind towards him sending him stumbling, dropping the stick.

The Man he had broken the nose of before grabbed Drake and brought out a dagger.

"Ahah! Now I got ya!" He leered at Drake, "I owe you for breaking my nose like that bastard, now I can-"

The stick Drake had dropped suddenly exploded leaving scorch marks on the floor and sent the two fighters stumbling, Drake pulled something desperately from his pouches before the angry bandit behind him could stab him.

He pulled out a strange device, it resembled one of the flintlock pistol used by Snow country, however instead of a lever used for cocking the gun were two gears sticking out of the gun. They spun lightly and the gun hummed.

"Ah there it is!" Drake twisted and shot the bandit in the knee ending his budding banditry career and leaving him out of the melee.

The two thugs who were advancing on Drake in the meantime froze when he pointed the strange device at them.

"heh that's what you guys get for fighting me!" Drake pointed at himself with the gun.

"Now drop your weapons and you get to stay bullet free, I've got more than enough ammunition for the both of ya!" Drake grinned toothily ignoring the bandit's screams behind him, his grin turning manic.

The two thugs fell down though when Naruto smacked them both in the head with the blunt side of a kunai, two others were lying face down as well.

"Well now that was easy!" Drake grinned and held out his hand to Naruto.

"The names Drake, and as you probably heard I am the world's greatest inventor!" Naruto took his hand and shook it,

"I'm Naruto, the next-…" Naruto stopped halfway started and sighed, the grin on his face slipping away slightly before returning as a smile.  
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki-"

"YOU BASTARDS LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO MY TAVERN!" The bartender wailed again, and the tavern was a mess.

The table that the two bandits kicked at Drake was spilt in two, there were two holes in the floor from the hammer grenade that Drake used, and Naruto had broken a chair on the back of one of his thugs.

Drake turned to Naruto getting serious.

"Those weren't ordinary bandits, they were far too strong for that," Drake said narrowing his eyes at them, Naruto thought to himself

Drake sighed before looking at the irate tavern owner, who was still shouting.

"Listen, Naruto right? We probably want to leave before we get in trouble, I'll see you around" Naruto frowned to himself looking out the window.

"wha? Hey! Wait up!" Drake was already out the door, Naruto ran quickly to catch up.

"You said you pay for the damages you liar!" The barkeep yelled before looking at the goons angrily. There was a village nearby that would offer a reward for the bandits…


	6. A bit of Exposition

Drake swept through the tiny fishing hamlet a smirk working its way onto his face as his jacket billowed out from behind him. His goggles concealing his eyes from the world, his brightly colored pouches bouncing up and down with every step he took.

However his good mood faded when he heard a familiar voice burst out next to him.

"So where are we going Goggles?" The boy dressed in very cheap clothing from that inn. Drake stared at him for a second.

"You're still here?" He said raising an eyebrow at Naruto, the boy rubbed the back of his head and grinned sheepishly.

"Well, I uh… don't really have anywhere else to go." He said looking up at Drake, "And you seem like you can handle yourself in a fight, so I made myself your apprentice" Naruto grinned at the inventor.

Drake wasn't smiling however, inwardly he thought, 'why does this kid like me so much?'

However he sighed a little and kept walking

"Alright you know what kid? I like you, you remind me of myself when I was your age!" Drake said, Naruto beamed at the 'praise'.

"Really?"

"No, you're too loud and obnoxious but I like that, okay maybe not… but those clones of yours look useful." Drake said with no real bite to his words.

Naruto grinned again and felt at ease for the first time in days. Finally for the first time in what felt like years Naruto had a purpose in life.

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_Meanwhile in Konoha_

Tsunade slammed her fists on the desk and growled out,

"For the last time Danzo we're sending his friends after him, we don't know whether or not he's run away. Some random ANBU would only make things worse!" Tsunade glared at the old man who stood unabashed by the Hokage's irritation.

"Your emotions cloud you judgment Tsunade-"Danzo began but was cut off by Tsunade

"And your judgment is clouded by your hubris, its Hokage to you, and unlike that damn organization of yours my ninja use emotions." Tsunade said suddenly turning professional. Danzo stopped for a second actually surprised for once before Tsunade spoke again.

"Did you really think a ninja force with the capabilities of the ANBU really escaped Sarutobi-sensei's attention? Do you now see what I mean? You assume us who believe in the will of fire to be weak, and think we have no political abilities. Now be quiet and let the hokage handle things from here, I know Naruto he wouldn't do something like this for no reason." Tsunade said turning to the window. Danzo sighed before turning away from Tsunade about to leave, he stopped however and turned around.

"Very well, I'll leave it to you Hokage-san but take care not to underestimate the dangers of rogue jinchuuriki or we'll all pay for it." With that Danzo left, the click as the door knob slid back into place sounding louder than it should have.

Tsunade groaned before sitting back on her chair, she leant her face on one hand and felt older than ever. She pulled out a bottle of sake and took a mouthful before looking over the rest of her paperwork.

Why on earth did she take this job?

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Neji lay on his bed trying to get rid of the headache that was starting up again, the reason you might ask?

Being locked in a room with an injured but fired up Rock Lee, who at the moment was yelling about how the fires of youth would guide them to victory once they were healed up.

"YOSH then we shall power our way through our opponents and our flames of Youth will ignite!" Lee took a breath,

"Lee would you kindly **shutup**?" Neji's voice turned darker at the last word of his sentence and Rock lee decided that perhaps now was not a good time to inspire his hospitalized teammate, he sat back down into his bed and relaxed.

They would be out soon in maybe two days, and after that they had a mission to prepare for. Lee wondered what it was that it required team 10's expertise and so soon after two members were wounded.


	7. The first Arc begins!

Hello everyone! Its me the illustrious author! (see what I did thar?)

Anyway you may have noticed a definite lack of authors notes; that's because well, that little 6 short chapter bit was a prologue!

That's right this story is going to be a large story, and I'm hoping to get it into the 1000+ reviews! The story is going to have author's notes in it and the chapters are going to be a lot longer, I admit that at a few points this story dragged its ass in my mind, Drake suffered a bit of a character change but its not to large of a scene and it isn't that noticeable in my opinion.

Anyway even though the chapter 6 was a slow painful torture to right the first important and fun part to write is here! That's right the mission, the story is going to have 4 main arcs that will vary in length.

All of them will be finished though as I'm putting almost all stories on hold until this one is finished

Now a word on Drake

Yes he is an OC, and he was a mary sue at some point; for those of you who may recall I had an idea in my head about a time traveller with blade magic and time control. He was an Mary sue and I had one fight scene with a version of him from the past and I realized that time travel was bollocks and dropped it.

Then a few years later I looked at this story and realized it had potential still, first I got rid of every inch of character bashing as that's a very bad thing to do in a FF. Then I scratched out the magic and put in inventions, then I aged him up, then I changed the Kyuubi, then I fixed the battle

Then I scrapped it and tried again,

Now I have a much more balanced and I think a lot more likeable character, Drake (originally Blade) has flaws, he has issues, and he has power and he is balanced. I also fixed my writing a lot more.

So anyway I'm now going to have an author comment either at the beginning or the end of each chapter and you guys should read it if you're confused or pissed about something I did.

Anyway

First Arc:

Hunters in the gambling town!

Oh and if you guys want regular chapters I need a beta reader, my friends are lazy and don't read Fanfics so I need a beta reader who's willing to deal with me disappearing off the face off the earth for months at at time, only for me to come awake again and start writing like it's the last day on earth.

And though this sounds egotistical I also don't want too much changed in the story just bits and bobs that don't make sense, when you read them; just point them out so I can rewrite them into something legible!

Until then I'll try to keep things edited but don't be surprised if I f**k up somewhere down the line!


	8. On your Mark

If there was one thing Drake could have, one invention that he could get his gloved hands on; it was a remote, one that affected everything just so he could turn down the volume of the blonde next to him.

Drake had two jobs he needed to do in Fire country, one of which was a mission which had a very large payoff and would let Drake continue his rather expensive lifestyle. The other was to drop by a friend's house and pick something up.

Both journeys (and then the trip back to what he called HQ) would take about a month, never mind any stops they had to take and the mission itself. Ordinarily he would simply be bored but now with the blonde next to him…

Naruto had been quiet, morose, and rather uncharacteristically at loss for what to do with himself, what goal he could have that meant something. When he left Konoha, missing nins couldn't become hokages now could they?

Now however he had someone he could talk to again, and all the words he held in seem to pour out in a never ending, almost incomprehensible mess that was guaranteed to irritate someone after ten minutes… maybe five.

So Drake was relieved beyond measure when he saw their first destination in front of them, finally something life threatening that he could sink his teeth in!

"-So then that damn cat scratched me across-" Naruto continued to walk until he realized that Drake stopped. Naruto fell silent for once and looked at Drake.

"Oi goggles? You there?" he waved a hand in front of Drake and he shook himself.

"We're here, Tanzaku Gai; the location of my target!" Drake grinned manically he held up a knife and spun it around, he stared at the city as a dark cloud filled the area the ground quaked as he started to laugh maniacly. The very citizens felt the growing presence of pure chaos as Drake started to-

**Grooowwwwll**

Drake's head snapped towards Naruto who shrugged sheepishly as the dark clouds and anything vaguely resembling an ominous atmosphere drifted away faster than thrown kunai.

"Sorry Goggles I'm pretty hungry… ya think we could get some ramen while we're here?" Naruto rubbed the back of his head, as Drake mourned the loss of his moment.

"*You think* it's you, not 'ya'." Drake corrected automatically "Remember as a fledgling inventor you need to have proper grammer-" Naruto sighed

"Yeah, yeah you've told me a hundred times, now c'mon I'm hungry!" Naruto grinned before running off to the gambling hub.

"Well I'm pretty hungry as well…" Drake said before vanishing with a sharp distinctive **crack**.

After a few minutes of silence on the road a man dressed completely in black walked out of the treeline, he knelt down and memorized both the inventor's footprints and the wayward jinchuuriki's before looking towards the city.

This complicated mission just got even more so. The figure mused as he stared at the orange youth jump in fright as the goggled man teleported in front of him.

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Out of all the things in the universe one could change, there was one thing everyone agreed upon, Naruto loved ramen. From a cold heartless weapon in Root, to a candy jutsu user, to a maniacal scientist, to a boy stuck looping chuunin exams; no matter what kind of person he was he would always love the noodles.

Ra-amen

Drake learnt this the hard way, or rather his wallet did as the wayward Jinchuuriki downed bowl after bowl of ramen. Finally Naruto finished and grinned foxily at Drake who was staring at Naruto eyes wide. Similarly the owner of the stand stood in front of the bar his jaw slack and just stared at the boy turned black hole.

Naruto was oblivious and Drake groaned as he was hoping to dig into one of his stashes way earlier than he planned, he remembered to get Naruto to tone down on his diet before they left.

As they walked away from the stand Naruto for the first time in a week realized he had no idea where he was going.

"Goggles where are we going?" Naruto asked cheerily, oblivious to the fact he just ate a fortune in ramen.

"Well since you just ate our hotel money I have to get us some more money neh?" Drake said unusually cheerful for someone who lost a lot of money.

"Where'r you gonna get more?" Naruto asked as Drake huffed

"Where *are* you *going to* get more!" Drake snarked "A proper inventor needs to talk smart!" Drake said, "I'm going to unlock my stash of money before we get enough to refill it and more." Drake said before stopping in front of a large tree.

Naruto kinda recognized the tree from somewhere but he couldn't quite place it. Something knackered at his memory, something important.

"Yeah judging from your expression you're amazed that I hid the money in the Tanzaku lucky tree." Drake said grinning proud of his work, Naruto wasn't paying attention till the last three words.

"Wait, this is place where Me and Ero-sennin went to get baa-chan!" Naruto exclaimed cheerily.

Drake smacked a palm into his forehead "Ero-sennin and I*" He corrected automatically and decided to ask despite his instincts telling him otherwise. He dipped a hand into one of his pouches.

"Who's this 'ero-sennin' and 'baa-chan' of yours eh?" Drake said smirking lightly he took a sip of water from a bottle he procured from his pouch

"Oh that's easy, Jiraiya and Tsunade," Naruto answered bright as sunshine.

"PFFFFT" Drake spewed motor oil all over the tree, he put the bottle back reminding himself he had to organize his pouches a little better. Drake then whipped around.

"Jiraiya, and Tsunade…the sannin, they know you **personally**." Drake said confirming the horrible, horrible thoughts running through his head.

"Yeah, since I… I was friends of the Old man, er third hokage" Naruto voice dropped a little so nobody would hear. "I was kinda important to Konoha you know?" Naruto grinned oblivious to Drake's wide eyes and recently dropped jaw.

"You… you knew the third, know two of the legendary sannin and you ran away from Konoha without any kinda preparations." Drake said slowly.

Naruto wilted, before sighing.

"Look if I-" he began only for Drake to start laughing. Naruto looked at Drake and considered for the first but not the last time if he really wanted to follow the guy.

"That is awesome! You know how much funs this is gonna be? OHH man this is gonna be so awesome!" Drake cheered before straightening up. "We will have to deal with the hunters though, but for now let's get some resources!" drake walked over and kicked the tree twice turned over a rock that fell, bit his thumb, and spread blood on the bottom of it.

With a puff of smoke a brown bag popped out and he placed it into his pouch, even though the bag was larger than the pouch. Naruto remembered that Drake once pulled a war hammer that exploded from the blue one. He was about to ask how that was physically possible before Drake spoke up.

"Now then, off to acquire a temporary base of operations!" He said cheerily until he noticed Naruto's puzzled expression.

"Off to get a hotel room."

Naruto's expression turned into one of understanding as they walked away from the tree.

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Garret was not a nice man, he owned several casino's, stripclubs, and a good chunk of Tanzaku Gai's prostitution and drug rackets were under his control.

No to get that position he had done things that even he winced at sometimes, but it was only business and tried to be as fair as possible to his hired help. More importantly he always made sure he had all of his bases covered; hence the 3 Nuke nin he had on hire as body guards. Sure it cost a fortune to pay off the missing ninja, but thanks to them he was still alive and functioning.

Unfortunately for him his ninja had never learnt how to fight an inventor.

Drake had rented out a hotel and ignored the moans, groans and squeals coming from the rooms they passed. Naruto however didn't and kept asking what was going on in those rooms.

He was not going to give **that** talk to a kid he met a week ago, no way.

They passed through the dingy hallway they saw their room number. Drake slid the card in and they entered their room. It was a musty room with two single beds that could be fit together. There was also a TV and a single window with curtains that looked out of place in the rather dumpy room. There also was a small closet with a washing machine/dryer set, and a bathroom with a simple shower, sink, and toilet which fortunately were much cleaner than the other parts of the room.

Lastly and most important there was a sturdy oak desk in front of the window where drake hung his coat off the chair.

Naruto however placed his rucksack on a bed and examined it closely for anything nasty, it seemed like the place wasn't that clean and he at least slept on a clean bed back in Konoha.

Drake examined the desk a little more checking its weight capacity taking a few measurements with a tape he got from his pouches. He finished up the measurements memorizing them before looking at his new apprentice.

"Alright, now you want to be my apprentice correct?" Drake said, Naruto stopped in the middle smelling his bed sheets and turned to Drake.

"Well yeah, I did follow you for about a week with no idea of where we're going" Naruto said.

"Well then are you willing to go through with insane ideas, inventions and promise to never quit on being an inventor? Think about it for a second because once you say yes, you are going to be my apprentice whether you like it or not. You'll have to follow me through thick and thin and even if I commit heinous crimes you will have to follow me through it all until I declare you an inventor." Drake explained staring at Naruto waiting for his reaction.

Naruto thought about it, and realized something important. If he was going to have any hope of getting away from hunter nins or even escaping Jiraiya or Tsunade he'd have to have a lot of skills and talents. Most of which would only be gained with unorthodox training.

So it was with a determined look Naruto straightened up looked Drake in the eye and said

"You can call me your apprentice then Goggly-kun!"

"Goggles*-kun"

"Whatever, tebayo!"

"Don't say that again... please?"

"NEVER!"

"*sigh*"

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Tanto unfolded a telescope and examined the two inventor's through it, trying to place a name on the goggled stranger who looked like trouble.

Killing a jinchuuriki was actually fairly easy, just make sure they couldn't see you before slitting something the bijuu couldn't heal and run away.

As long as both the person and the tenant remained unaware of the danger the jinchuuriki wouldn't have time to access his or her powers and the assassin had a window of opportunity.

Of course this would be a lot easier if he wouldn't have to almost certainly do open battle with the alert inventor who was currently shaking his head at Tanto's target's actions.

Maybe if he struck at the same time some generic hunter nin attacked… Tanto nodded to himself and got into a comfortable position, then all he would have to do is kill either a weakened hunter nin or a jinchuuriki and report back.

Time to wait then.

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Wow this chapter was not fun to write, ugh. These little things have to be done but the only parts of this that are remotely interesting to write are the ramen jokes.

I hope you guys don't hate this as much as I do, but the next 2 chapters will heat up very, very quickly so review and favorite it if you like this story, it makes me write! IT HELPS ME BREATHE


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